|
Big mistake...
|
13 May 2002
|
previous • current • next
There's no sign on the gate
and there's mud on your face.
Don't you think it's time we re-investigate this situation?
(Natalie Imbruglia - "Big Mistake")
There's a commercial on television that really, really bothers me. It shouldn't, or maybe it should.
It's a commercial for a car; I can't even remember which one. But it's where this guy apparently goes to Hell. He says, "I've been a good person." The devil-like guy says, "Yeah, but you were boring. You took up space."
For that someone deserves Hell? Okay, I can appreciate that it's not real, and that it's supposed to make a statement. I just don't like the statement it makes. How many kids are watching that commercial? How many young people (or older people even) look at themselves and see someone who is worthless because they have no excitement in their lives? In their opinions, they contribute little to their society. They are merely 'taking up space'.
Yes, I really do believe that this can be something that people take to heart. This commercial is potentially harmful to the sometimes delicate psyche of our young people. I think that we've all seen what can happen to someone who thinks their lives to be obsolete, inconsequential, not worth the air that they breathe.
That is so not true. Every single life is precious. I see kids every day who have low self esteems for no apparent reasons. Little kids. I teach third grade, and I have a little girl whose mother has been taking her to therapists. The little girl is thought to be a manic depressive. She's eight years old, for crying out loud. It makes me just want to break down into tears over some of these kids. They don't have a chance, it seems, and the television and commercial people see fit to make it okay to validate those notions.
Did the writers of the commercial and the producers of the networks who place this commercial ever think about the consequences of this kind of thing? Perhaps I am being hypersensitive to the potential feelings of others. Perhaps I am over-analyzing a simple commercial. But I know kids, and I see what the likes of television does to them.
< / rant > ;-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[ Registered ]](/images/registry.gif){kind=small}
